Why I went: My study abroad experience was actually a
research trip funded by the UB Honors College Research and Creative
Activities Fund. I went to study agricultural development, but
ended up finding water issues more interesting and relevant to my
own life (coming from the North American Great Lakes Region).

Water issues I worked on while I was there: I helped set
up a co-op that provided farmers with emissions-free water pumps
for watering fields.

Why water caught my attention: I remember — I can
still see it — a very small, makeshift dam the farmers were
using. It was made of sticks and leaves and just a trickle of water
was coming through. Seeing all the livestock and people trying to
get water from this limited source got me interested in the
politics of water: who gets it, how to distribute it.

Another thing that fascinated me about Tanzania: I was
amazed by the emergence of mobile communication technologies in
even remote villages. Since 2007, mobile has been transforming
economic and human development across Africa.

What I’m doing now: My first trip to Tanzania
included an eight-hour layover in London. This gave me the chance
to take a peek at the city, which inspired me to apply to British
universities for grad school.

I'm finishing up a PhD at Oxford now. My dissertation looks at
how mobile payment options influence water provision in urban
areas. I've been back to East Africa at least five or six
times for research and work.

On Buffalo and Tanzania: Going abroad has given me a new
perspective on almost every issue we face in Western New York. I'm
hoping to apply mobile innovations from East Africa and ideas from
leading Oxford thinkers to challenges in Buffalo. The world holds
the solutions to Buffalo’s 21st-century problems. We just
have to go out and find them.

Connect with me: You can find me on Twitter at
@AKrolikowski.

Study Abroad

UB offers study abroad opportunities in 30 countries, along with
access to more than 550 other SUNY programs. Eleven percent of our
undergraduates study abroad — five times the national
average.

Find out more about how you can study abroad, whether
you’re an architect who would like to spend the summer in the
parks, cafés and museums of Barcelona, or an engineer who
would like to experience university life in France.